Paulina Sanchez was definitely pretty. Her hair was long and thick. It had a slight wave to it. Her skin was lovely and tan and, well, her jeans hugged her in all the great places. Her shirt too.
He hadn't noticed her before because they didn't share any classes. She was just another pretty face in the crowd. But now Danny found himself looking for her in the hallways.
She was a cheerleader. Maybe that's another reason he hadn't noticed her. All her friends were the kind of people he hated. That is to say, they were Dash's crowd.
He couldn't stand anything that reminded him of that dumb jock.
Paulina was someone better left alone, he thought. Yet when he accidentally made eye contact with her, he couldn't help smiling. It was an automatic reaction.
And isn't it just common courtesy to smile? What was he supposed to do?
Her locker was way too close to his.
The school day was over, he was just grabbing the last of his things and he really didn't want to be thinking about her anymore. He shouldn't have looked her way. He shouldn't have smiled.
Paulina seemed to consider it an invitation. She walked over to him and smiled sweetly. She tucked some hair behind her ear.
"That was hilarious at lunch," she said. "Your little slime prank."
"Thanks, I'll be here all week," Danny said. "Actually, I'll be trapped until graduation."
Paulina tilted her head and politely laughed a dainty little confused kind of laugh. "Oh?"
"Nevermind," Danny said. He just wanted to go home. "Have a good weekend."
"It's Thursday," Paulina said. She tucked another strand of hair behind her other ear.
"Really? That's too bad." He started walking backwards towards the door. "Have a great weekend and a great Friday, then."
She giggled, trailing after him. "I'm going in the same direction, dork."
He smacked his forehead and stopped walking. "Yes, of course." He held his arm out towards the exit. "Ladies first. I'll just loiter here for five minutes."
"Or we could walk together?" Paulina said. She was blinking a little quickly now. Was this how girls flirted?
"Nah, I wouldn't want to soil your reputation or anything."
"Puh-lease," Paulina said. She brushed a bit of hair over her shoulder just so she could then flip that hair behind her again. "My reputation will always be flawless."
At a loss, Danny shrugged. "Alright."
So they walked out of the building, shoulder to shoulder. Danny kept an eye out for Dash, but the guy never made an appearance.
He ended up walking Paulina all the way to the parking lot, somehow.
"Hey Danny," she said. "You have a date to the dance yet?"
This could not be happening. "Uh, no."
"Yeah? Me neither!" Paulina clapped her hands and did this weird -but cute- little hop.
"What a remarkable coincidence," Danny said. He tugged at the hairs on the back of his neck. "Actually, I find that very hard to believe. So hard to believe that I, in fact, don't believe it."
"Well okay," Paulina giggled. "A few people did ask me."
"Oh really?"
"And I might have said yes to someone," she said. She nibbled on her bottom lip. Not the way he often did, chomping down and drawing blood.
No, Paulina did it in a cute way that made her lip slightly swollen without breaking skin.
Danny realized she was waiting for a response. "So then who are you going with?"
She waved a hand. "He doesn't matter. I'm going to bail on him. There's someone else I'd rather go with."
She was doing that rapid blinking thing again. It drew his attention to her eyelashes, which were really long. Danny wondered if they were real. Girls bought weird stuff like fake eyelashes, he'd heard. And, like, glued them on?
"Who do you want to go with," he said. He thought he knew where she was going with this. But he also wondered if Dash was hiding under the car waiting for him to make a fool out of himself.
She grinned. "You, silly!"
"Uh, why?"
Paulina tapped at her chin as if she were seriously mulling it over. "You just seem so different lately," she said. "You've changed. And I like it."
She winked at him. "I always thought you were a cutie."
"I was a cutie," he echoed.
"Yeah!" Paulina said. "But you didn't know how to be chill."
"And now I do?" Danny realized his hand was still at the back of his neck. He put his arm down.
"Let's find out for sure," she said, patting his cheek. "At the dance! Kay?"
"Kay," he said. Like an idiot.
"Great! Give me your phone." He did so and she typed her number in. "Text me so we can work out the details."
Then she kissed him on the cheek and made shoo-ing motions. "Now go go, or you'll miss your bus."
He resisted the urge to touch the damp spot on his cheek. Instead he turned around and walked away, mindful of his speed and posture as he went.
He missed his bus.
oOo
Sam and Tucker were already online by the time he got home. Freshly annoyed by the lecture from Jazz (who had to drive back to school to bring him home) he really wasn't in the mood for dealing with the new guy.
But they were already grinding away when Danny logged in to Doomed, so there was no helping it.
Not that he had a problem with the new guy. He was cool and all. For a random online friend. A pen pal in Canada, of all places. That Sam had way too much emotional investment in.
She'd met him on one of those websites where she liked to post the poetry he and Tucker were "too dumb to get." At first they had just emailed back and forth or something.
But then she just had to introduce him to Doomed. Now they were all stuck trying to help him level up. They couldn't continue the main quest with a party member below level 50.
Though it might not take too long. Danny checked on ghosted's stats before opening the chat box and saw that he was already at 32. He'd gone up six levels in just a day. Not bad.
fryertuck: duuude u late!
chaos: Spaz
ghosted: hi danny!
SpaceAce12: sorry guys
chaos: What happened?
SpaceAce12: missed the bus
fryertuck: he was with paulina!
ghosted: what?!
ghosted: who? o.o
chaos: A bitch
SpaceAce12: she's a cheerleader
fryertuck: THE HOTTEST ONE
chaos: What did she want?
ghosted: o.o
fryertuck: eeey
chaos: -_-
fryertuck: EEEY
ghosted: •
fryertuck: DANNY
SpaceAce12: O.o
chaos: •
ghosted: •
fryertuck: we need answers!
SpaceAce12: •
chaos: C'mon already
fryertuck: ANSWERS :o
SpaceAce12: alright alright
SpaceAce12: togotothedance
fryertuck: THE DANCE?!
chaos: The dance
chaos: With. You
fryertuck: You actually asked her?!
ghosted: congrats
SpaceAce12: no!
chaos: She said no?
fryertuck: that's okay!
fryertuck: points for asking! :D
fryertuck: all the respect
SpaceAce12: not what I meant -_-
chaos: Then what happened?
SpaceAce12: SHE
SpaceAce12: asked ME
chaos: What
ghosted: O:
fryertuck: WHAT A FREAKING TWIST
fryertuck: THE BOY BECOMES A MAN
chaos: I don't believe this
ghosted: o.o
SpaceAce12: it's true!
fryertuck: why would he lie sam
SpaceAce12: gave me her ## too
fryertuck: that's how you know it's real!
ghosted: did you text her?
SpaceAce12: not yet o.o
fryertuck: smart man
fryertuck: jus be chiiiill play it cool
chaos: She must have a motive
ghosted: wow Sam
fryertuck: don't be a debbie downer
SpaceAce12: -_-
chaos: I'm serious! It's suspicious!
fryertuck: noooooo
ghosted: T.T
SpaceAce12: you're an ass
chaos: Why do you even care?!
chaos: You don't even like her!
SpaceAce12: who says I don't?!
chaos: the way you acted at lunch!
fryertuck: sam he was a BOSS
SpaceAce12: that's why!
SpaceAce12: she liked it!
chaos: What?
SpaceAce12: she said I'm chill
SpaceAce12: I wasn't before
ghosted: guys, help me out
ghosted: what happened at lunch?
chaos: NO
ghosted logged out
chaos logged out
SpaceAce12: uh
fryertuck: what the heck
SpaceAce12: did she just
fryertuck: tell her boyfriend to log out?
SpaceAce12: he's not her bf
fryertuck: suuuure he's not
fryertuck: you're so innocent my child
SpaceAce12: -_-
SpaceAce12: should we quest?
SpaceAce12: ghosted is gone so
fryertuck: without sam?!
fryertuck: wanna die?!
SpaceAce12: she'll get over it
fryertuck: dude she's our tank
SpaceAce12: oh
SpaceAce12: right we'd die yup
fryertuck: eh I should do my homework
SpaceAce12: for once
fryertuck: right back at ya
fryertuck logged out
Danny sighed. He shut the game down and grabbed his algebra textbook. Then he opened the contacts folder on his phone.
Just to look at Paulina's number. Reassure himself that it was really there.
But Tucker was right. He should play it cool. Text her tomorrow.
With that in mind, he did his homework until it was time for dinner.
oOo
When the ghost alarm went off, Danny ignored it. His parents had installed the thing three days ago and day one had been a disaster, of course.
It was overly sensitive, activating as soon as the ghost portal was opened or if someone used anything powered by ectoplasm.
They'd said they would turn the sensitivity down. No one wanted to hear a blaring alarm every five minutes. Thankfully this was the first time he'd heard it today.
Still, Danny figured it was a low level ghost. An animal or something. The alarm stopped beeping and he thought he'd be able to continue his homework in peace.
Until he heard Jazz screaming. "Get away from my room!"
He couldn't resist poking his head into the hallway to peer at the commotion.
"It's a powerful one this time Jazzy-cakes!" Dad said. He was holding one of the trackers. "It's a special one!"
"I don't care," Jazz said. "Go look somewhere else."
"But it was in there, sweetie," Mom said. "The residue is all over the room."
They looked more excited than usual. Dad was swinging his arms and hopping onto his tippy does, then back on his soles, then back on his toes. He continued like that, positively vibrating, just itching to go further into her room.
Mom put a hand on Jazz's shoulder. "Honey, the ghost boy was trying to haunt you. Won't you let us just-"
Jazz spun around and stomped back into her room. She came back out with an armful of books.
"Fine!" she snapped. "I'll be in the kitchen. Studying while I wait for dinner."
"Oh, is it that time already?" Mom said. "Jack, I should probably go make something."
When she passed Danny in the hallway, Jazz didn't spare him a glance. Should he feel offended at that?
Instead, he was relieved.
Tentatively, he approached his parents. "Why not order a pizza?"
"Oh, honey," Mom said. "We need to stop eating so much fast food-"
"But this sounds important," Danny said. "The ghost boy was here? That's huge."
"Isn't it?!" Dad said. He started setting up a little workstation on Jazz's bed. Danny didn't recognize the equipment, but it looked like it had been made out of a beaten up microwave. "We haven't seen that sucker since ol' Vladdy's spooky castle."
"It was a mansion, dear." Mom was eyeing the equipment and her watch, looking torn.
"A castle themed mansion!"
"But, uh, how do you know it's the same ghost?" Danny said. He leaned against the doorframe of the room.
"We recognized his ecto-signature," Mom said. "Each ghost has one. It's like a thumb print."
"Cool, cool. So hey why don't I make something?" He tried to look nonchalant, walking slowly backwards towards the stairs with his hands behind his back. "And you guys just... keep doing what you're doing."
"Danny, I don't think that's-" Mom started, but dad interrupted her. "A great idea Dan-o!"
"It'll be something simple," he said, raising his voice since he could no longer see them. "Macaroni, you know? That's easy."
Mom poked her head out of the room. "We ran out of macaroni."
"I'll go buy some real quick," Danny shouted over his shoulder as he jogged down the stairs. "Okay bye!"
And he was out of the house before anyone could say otherwise.
He jogged around the monstrosity known as Fenton Works twice, craning his head, squinting at every window and crevasse.
As if he could spot Phantom just like that. The guy could float right by him invisibly and Danny would never know.
It bothered him that the ghost had been with Jazz. What was he doing in her room? Did she know him the way Danny knew him?
It wasn't possible.
Not like he could ask her either way. If he was wrong it would blow the secret. If he was right, well. He didn't want to be. It had been nice, having Phantom to himself. A secret best friend.
But then he had to go and screw it up. Just in case, he hastily shouted "I'm sorry!" in the general direction of Jazz's bedroom window.
The result was disappointing. His dad opened the window and stuck his head out. "What's up kiddo?"
Scrambling for a response, Danny said the first thing he could think of. "Wh-what kind of macaroni should I buy?"
His dad blinked at him and scratched his head. "Whatever's cheapest?"
He gave his dad two thumbs up and headed for the store, trying to swallow the familiar ache in his throat. It was only a matter of time, after all. Phantom would come back.
Right?